Inputs.io hacked – 4100 BTC stolen

Post by TheMakeA » Thu, Nov 07, 2013, 6:51 AM UTC

steveklabnik wrote: post #28

biff wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting thought. Could there be "shunned" Bitcoins where, if they held certain blacklisted wallets in their history, businesses and users would choose not to accept them? One could imagine people still choosing to trade in these Bitcoins, but that such a penalty would forevermore reduce their value next to "unshunned" coins. Could legit businesses and people using Bitcoin collectively reduce the value of stolen B…

If you think that a pile of anonymous people on the internet are going to respect a 'stolen' flag with no real downsides, I've got a bridge to sell you... Also, this is ignoring the entire problem of 'who decides what stolen means in a totally decentralized protocol?' That's non-trivial in and of itself.

Post by joelrunyon » Thu, Nov 07, 2013, 6:54 AM UTC

M4v3R wrote: post #2

4100 BTC = 1.1 mil USD at current prices. These Bitcoins were stolen from website's "hot wallet" (every shared wallet has to operate one to process current withdrawals). This hot wallet was probably too hot though, as it seems that they had most of their coins online, and only about one third offline (other services claim to store 80-90% offline). According to postings on Bitcointalk.org forums people are getting bac…

Post by Helianthus » Thu, Nov 07, 2013, 6:56 AM UTC

asciimo wrote: post #44

Helianthus wrote: post #23

I don't know what you expected, Bitcoin enthusiasts. You bought into a system where coins could be permanently lost because you forgot a password. You bought into a system where the government cheerfully gained control of a large share of the market by simple confiscation. You have recreated money . But you aren't even good at it! You still think that simple cryptography will excuse you from the fact that you're gree…

Are you referring to the 144,000 BTC confiscated in the Silk Road bust? There are almost 12,000,000 BTC in circulation. The Silk Road share accounts for about 1.2% Compare that with any government currency that is 100% government-controlled. It's easy to permanently lose cash, too.

Post by steveklabnik » Thu, Nov 07, 2013, 6:56 AM UTC

grey-area wrote: post #48

steveklabnik wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> untraceable This is wrong. Every single transaction is saved, by everyone. It's the core of how the protocol works. That doesn't mean there aren't ways to obscure who controls the wallets, but it's not untraceable, and 'distributed' has nothing to do with privacy.

I find this point a very interesting one. Everyone insists that transactions are saved and traceable (which of course they are), but I've never heard of anyone finding out who stole their coins and getting them back. People just seem to accept after a break-in that the money is gone and there's nothing they can do about it. That's not acceptable to me in a currency, particularly not one that people use as a store of…

Post by steveklabnik » Thu, Nov 07, 2013, 6:59 AM UTC

TheMakeA wrote: post #51

steveklabnik wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think that a pile of anonymous people on the internet are going to respect a 'stolen' flag with no real downsides, I've got a bridge to sell you... Also, this is ignoring the entire problem of 'who decides what stolen means in a totally decentralized protocol?' That's non-trivial in and of itself.

I think you might be able to just start and end with the laundry cleaners. Blockchain.info could just decide that they won't wash coins that they know were from a high profile hack like this.